(open) you're looking at me like you don't know who i am

[entreats]

Who: Ange, Ruby, Break, and anyone who knows any of them.
What: Corruption turned Ange into a true Umineko witch who decided the best way to keep the people she loves safe from this town is to drag them into a pocket dimension.
When: For a while in March.
Where: Ange and Ruby's house-turned-small-pocket-dimension.

Content Warnings: Potential violence if anyone acts particularly antagonistic. Potential talk of violence or gore. Other warnings will be added when things pop up.



Perhaps you have seen Ruby's odd network post and decided to check things out. Or maybe you're just wandering around Trench and notice that Ange and Ruby's house suddenly looks.. different.

The house has been completely overgrown by way oversized roses, big thorns growing out of all the stems, completely obscuring the structure that's supposed to be underneath it. If you get close enough to the cluster of roses, you may feel your connection to any of the three people inside suddenly pull you in. (Please note: only people who know either Ange, Ruby or Break will be able to enter the pocket dimension because of this!)

If you give in to the sensation, everything around you might go black, and when the light returns, you seem to find yourself in.. a hedge maze. A rather odd one, though. As you stumble through it, you may suddenly find yourself in random rooms, and then back out of them into the hedge maze once more. The Moss King's wild plants seem to have even invaded corners of this place, so you might want to watch out you avoid having those snap at you. Retracing your steps through the labyrinth feels impossible, like the way is changing up behind you with every step. Some rooms make perfect sense - like a neat and elaborate kitchen, or a library - and others seem to consist of nonsense with stairs leading upside down or to nowhere, or gravity not working in a specific room at all.

Flying throughout the entire maze are golden butterflies. They seem to fly with direction, and if you follow them, you might find them leading you to one of the people you were looking for..

Comments

[entreats]

[ Thankfully it's not the first time that Ange has had to clarify this. Maybe it's why it sounds so effortless for her to just simply reply with: ]

In other places they might call that sort of thing a "familiar", perhaps.

[ That seems like the closest equivalent that other people might grasp.. ]

This place was depleting her aura. [ She's not sure if that's a concept Michael knows about, but then again, it's more of a Ruby's world sort of thing than an Ange's world sort of thing. Still, she adds: ] That's practically her soul. The only way to keep her alive was to replace the strength she was losing with my own magic.

[ Which is what she did. ]

[eudaimonikos]

...kinda sounds like she still doesn't have her actual soul, though.

[Like, replacing it with Ange Control doesn't sound a whole lot better?]

[entreats]

Of course she does. You've seen her, right?

[ Not that Ange knows Ruby has been broadcasting this place to the entire network.. She just figures that anyone who manages to reach her in this place surely has seen Ruby along the way, since that girl seems to be all over the place here. ]

How would she be walking around if she had no soul?

[eudaimonikos]

If her soul got replaced with a bunch of furniture stuff, probably exactly like that.

[entreats]

There's nothing replaced. She's just being strengthened by my magic. [ Or so Ange herself seems to believe, anyway. It's not like this is the sort of thing she does more often - especially when the furniture she's had in the past back home was just passed down to her from someone else.

So she actually has no idea how it works when you create it from scratch.

Still, she seems convinced. Perhaps even a tad defensive, but it's mostly since Ruby is involved, and Ruby is too important to be thinking about these sorts of things. ]

As far as I have seen her going around here, she seems fine. She acts just like she usually does towards me.

[eudaimonikos]

You guys had any disagreements?

[Like, anything at all of any size?]

[entreats]

[ Ange shakes her head. ]

Of course not. [ She says it like it's natural. ] I mean, what would we even have to disagree about here?

[eudaimonikos]

I don't know, but nobody agrees all the time. You should make sure you still don't. It's creepy, if she can't do that much.

[entreats]

But it's not that she can't disagree with me.

[ Or so Ange thinks, anyway. Reality might not work exactly that way - even though it's also not like she forced Ruby into compliance.

It's just a huge weird mess, and Ange doesn't know half of it in her corrupted state. ]

It's just that there has been no need for it so far. You could ask her about that yourself, if you haven't yet. I'm sure she is around here somewhere. [ Ange gestures with her hand into the distance. You know, probably off fighting plants somewhere around here.. ]

[eudaimonikos]

Do you actually know that, though?

[If they haven't, then where's the proof?]

Honestly? I'm not really sure I know her well enough to tell what's up. Other than...you know, the weird vibes. Real cult thing going on in here.

[entreats]

.. Cult thing?

[ Okay, now that seems to offend the girl. Not enough to immediately slip into full on rage, at least, but Ange certainly doesn't look pleased either as she repeats those words.

Because, you know, no one in a cult ever gets mad about being called a cult. Clearly. Obviously. ]

I can't believe you'd compare this to Trench and call this the cult thing. There are no blood sacrifices happening here. [ Unlike in!! Some places!!

Looking at you, Tower. ]

[eudaimonikos]

Not all cults do those. Usually it's more of a weird sex thing. Not - that I'm saying that either, that's beside the point.

[Let's not go there!]

Ange, I'm saying this as your friend. This glowing golden eyes magic...goddess thing is a very creepy vibe, and I don't think this is going to end well. People really don't actually want to be perfectly happy in a perfect paradise all the time, it's against human nature.

[entreats]

[ She frowns as she looks over at Michael. ]

Then what do they want?

[ At least she is still listening to him, rather than attacking him in any way. Even if she still doesn't exactly look happy as she asks him that question. ]

[eudaimonikos]

Novelty? A challenge? A lot of people don't do well without work, or even some sort of conflict. You can keep it low-key, like games or something...

[...honestly? Michael doesn't like the real answer much either. But he grimaces a little, and goes on after a moment:]

Really, though, they always want a way out. A chance to change, or move on, something like that. I don't really get it myself, but - when I took over the Good Place, what the people there really wanted was a door. It goes out, even I don't know what happens when you go through it. Kinda freaks me out, to be honest, but...it was the first time I saw those sadsacks actually happy, and they'd been in Heaven for a thousand years by then.

[entreats]

.. but that doesn't exist in Trench either, does it?

[ That does sound like a genuine question - though it, at the same time, does make Ange sound like she's leaning a little towards the side of it not existing there. After all, she may not want to go home, but there's no way to do so for those who'd want to. ]

Even if they might not think this place is perfect, at least it should have a leg up compared to Trench.

[eudaimonikos]

Sure it does. That's all the ocean is - an end. No different than what you get on Earth.

[Most people don't really choose to go out there, which makes it much more like Earth than the Good Place - which, obviously, makes sense. Either way, though, there sure is an end.]

[entreats]

[ Ange's eyes grow a little wider. Despite the fact that they're still empty, it does make her look a little surprised.

Or at least caught off guard by his statement. ]

Is that how you view the ocean? [ .. a slight pause, and then she either adds or corrects, it's hard to tell which-- ] Is that how people view the ocean there?

[eudaimonikos]

...well, that's kinda what it is, right? A door that goes to something. I know people have different ideas about what happens out there.

[Michael hadn't considered it a belief, per se, just sort of what it was.]

[entreats]

So people prefer.. having something there that just takes people away from them willy-nilly.

[ She speaks slowly, like she can't really believe in that idea herself, yet is summarizing all the same.

.. and adding some of her own conclusions, let's be real, since it's not exactly what Michael is saying here. ]

Just since it also might give them a way out one day.

[eudaimonikos]

Okay, that's not exactly what I said.

[Though - well, it's not like he doesn't get the reaction. Michael kinda feels the same about it all.]

But yeah, I guess? It's something about...you know, life's finite nature giving it meaning or whatever. Lots of philosophy books about that, humans talk about it like all the time. I honestly understand the desire for challenges more than that part. That one makes total sense to me.

[entreats]

[ Ange seems to contemplate this for a moment, but then only seems able to arrive at the conclusion of: ]

People are strange.

[ .. granted, Ange is people. She's a human, technically speaking, but she's talking right now as if she isn't one.

She considers herself a full witch in this corrupted form, after all. ]

Maybe I should just make an ocean for them here then. [ That'd clearly solve it, right.

Even though it'd just be a fake ocean compared to the one in Trench. ]

[eudaimonikos]

Would it actually go anywhere, though?

[He kinda doubts it! For like, a number of reasons!]

Do you want to just sit in here forever? Like - I know Trench kinda sucks. But, really, forever?

[entreats]

.. why not?

[ Sorry, Michael.

It sure seems like the answer to that question is a resounding yes when Ange reacts like that - like the fact that he's asking that question is kind of weird in the first place. ]

I'm a witch. I don't concern myself with silly little things like.. the human desire to go into the ocean, or anything like that.

[eudaimonikos]

You're a person. We're all just people.

[He's never really understood what differentiates a witch from a human in her world - or any other ones - anyway?]

[entreats]

[ She tilts her head to the side - just slightly. ]

Do you consider yourself to be just a person?